


Like Rabbits Bolting Home

by thehiddengrace



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Belonging, Gen, Hiding in Plain Sight, Mutant Powers, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, making your own family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22639744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehiddengrace/pseuds/thehiddengrace
Summary: Jaemin meets Haechan and Mark when Haechan falls out of the sky on his first solo flight while they're running away from everything they know.(Jaemin doesn't know much, but he knows that people with powers are a lot of trouble.)
Relationships: 00' Line Friendship
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	Like Rabbits Bolting Home

**Author's Note:**

> I'm tired of looking at this in my drafts, so I'm glad this is finally done. There are some places I wish I had focused on more, but this was a fun bit of world building.
> 
> Thanks, Machon, for listening to me cry about this literally forever.

Jaemin meets Haechan and Mark when Haechan falls out of the sky on his first solo flight.

Well, maybe “meets” isn’t exactly the right word, because Jaemin’s invisible and he doesn’t know how to willingly become re-visible and so he doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t want them to think he’s a ghost instead of an invisible boy. He just kind of lurks around because he doesn’t remember seeing anyone fall out of the sky before, and that’s kind of interesting. He follows the sound of crying until he sees the boy laid out on the ground.

He’s surprised to see the second boy there, leaning over the first that’s clutching at his bloody leg.

“It’s broken, Mark, I know it, oh my god, it hurts.”

“It’s not broken,” Mark says.

“It is broken. I can see the bone sticking out of my leg,” which draws Jaemin’s attention to it, and yeah, that’s a bone, and Christ, he’s going to faint.

“No, look at me,” Mark says, and when the boy looks up from his leg and meets Mark’s eyes, his face goes just a touch slack for the barest moment. “It’s not broken. Maybe sprained a little bit, but it’s definitely not broken. Stop crying over nothing.”

It definitely _is_ broken, but the boy just nods and stops crying. “Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right. I’m just overreacting.”

“Of course I’m right. I’m always right. Do you think you can walk on it? We’ve got to keep going.”

The boy looks at his leg as if he can’t even see the bone anymore. “I don’t know. It hurts pretty bad.”

“Look at me. It doesn’t hurt that bad. Just a little twinge.”

“Yeah, I can keep going.”

And Jaemin’s a little terrified, because he didn’t even believe that Minders really existed, that they were something Renjun had made up to scare him. He knows the best thing to do would be to stay quiet and then run home and try his best to become re-visible before Renjun gets there and laughs at him for getting stuck again, but. But. But he can’t bring himself to leave a kid with a broken leg in the thrall of a Minder that obviously is going to make him walk however far on said broken leg.

And Renjun’s always said that being invisible isn’t Jaemin’s real super power: being nosy is.

So of course when they start moving, he starts following.

“Why’s there blood on your hands, Mark?” the boy asks as they walk at a snail’s pace.

“There’s not blood on my hands, Haechan,” and up close, Mark looks very much like he’s about to completely lose his shit. He’s pale and sweating and keeps darting nervous glances towards Haechan’s leg. He’s propping Haechan up, taking as much of his weight as he can, but it’s not like Mark’s a big, strapping kind of guy. He’s starting to buckle under the pressure of it all.

But Haechan looks like he doesn’t even notice, blithely following wherever Mark leads.

“Oh, must have been a shadow or something.”

“Yeah, a shadow.” They go a few more minutes before Mark starts actually collapsing and Jaemin jumps in and grabs Haechan’s other arm.

“Are you Convincing me that I’m being held up by something invisible?” Haechan asks calmly.

Mark looks at Haechan’s up-stretched arm casually, like maybe he thinks he’s suddenly able to control the very elements, and carefully sinks to the ground. “No, I don’t think I’m doing that,” he finally says. “But maybe I’m imagining it and accidentally Convincing you, too.”

“Why would you be imagining it?”

“You know how stressed I get when I keep you thinking something too long.”

And Haechan doesn’t even ask a single question about Mark keeping him under mind control, just reaches out towards Jaemin’s face. “This is pretty convincing.”

And well, Jaemin’s never been good at being quiet. “Thank you,” he says with Haechan’s fingers over his mouth.

Jaemin’s pretty sure that Mark would have jumped if he weren’t so white and drawn in on himself; maybe Convincing Haechan he isn’t bleeding to death is taking a toll on him. Haechan, though, screams and jerks away, ripping his leg open a little further. He doesn’t even flinch though.

“Who’s there?”

“Uh, hi? My name’s Jaemin?”

Mark sighs, like Changers following him home happens all the time. “Can you turn back please? I hate talking to people when they’re invisible. Creeps me out.”

“I’m stuck like this.”

“A Changer curse you?” Haechan asks.

“Nah, just haven’t got the hang of Changing back yet.”

“Great.” Mark looks a little nervous, and Jaemin wonders if it’s because Mark can’t see his eyes to try and Convince him of something, too.

“Do have someone you can call?”

“No!” Haechan and Mark both shout.

“No one can know,” Mark says, his eyes darting around. “We have to keep this a secret.”

Jaemin keeps his gaze on Haechan because well, just in case. “I think someone’s gonna notice when you roll up with him bleeding everywhere.”

“Who’s bleeding?” Haechan asks, looking around.

They both ignore him. Probably not for the best if they work Haechan up.

“Or do you know someone who can just fix that?”

“No,” Mark says, face finally drooping down.

“Okay, so what’s your plan?”

“I don’t have one. I don’t even know how much longer we’ve even got before shock sets in.”

Jaemin sighs before coming up with his own plan. “Okay, give me your cellphone.” Since his is invisible and he’s probably never seeing it again unless his clothes become visible for once in his life. He’s lost seven phones just like this in the past year.

And it just goes to show how worn down Mark is that he fishes an old prepaid flip phone out of his pocket and doesn’t even question handing it over to an invisible stalker.

*

“How do you go on a walk and just find more people with powers?” Jeno asks when he’s been Moved in, Renjun glaring at what he probably imagines is Jaemin’s location. “I’ve never found anyone else randomly, and your count’s up to like a dozen.”

“It’s a hobby of mine? Or maybe that’s what I’m actually good at, finding people!”

“So you’re a Hufflepuff,” Haechan says, which draws Renjun’s attention towards him and his open leg wound. “They are particularly good finders.”

“Ugh, this would be the type of person you find,” he says, before reaching out for Haechan and the pair of them disappear.

“He can fly, huh?” Jeno asks, still staring at where they'd disappeared.

“I don’t know,” Jaemin considers. “I only saw him falling.”

“Are you guys sure he’s going to be safe?” Mark interrupts.

“Yeah? Renjun’s probably got him back home by now. Hopefully given him something for the pain.” Because Renjun’s good under pressure, probably popped up right in their makeshift infirmary and started grabbing supplies.

“Good,” Mark says, right before his eyes roll back in his head and he falls face first into the dirt.

“Now I see why you called me in, too,” Jeno says, looking at the crumpled boy on the ground.

“Just don’t accidentally break him.”

*

When Mark comes to, he realises he’s casually slung over someone’s shoulder and being jostled about as they’re making their way through the forest. He forces himself to stay calm until he remembers what happened: Haechan’s first solo flight, the crash, weirdo invisible Changer saving the day by calling a Mover that can actually teleport, how cool. He guesses they’re taking him wherever they took Haechan, and they can’t be that bad because he’s not tied up and blindfolded yet, so he lets himself groan.

“I think he’s waking up.”

“Oh, good.”

“Remember, don’t let him look at your eyes.”

Which kind of hurts, but he knows what people with powers think about people like him. Untrustworthy, sneaky, manipulative. It’s why he and Haechan had run away from the burrow they’d grown up in. “I promise I won’t put anything in your head,” he says.

“Yeah?” the Changer says. “The first thing I saw you do was Convince Haechan he wasn’t bleeding to death.”

“I wouldn’t be able to Convince either of you of anything right now. Too weak. Besides, I’ve never been able to Convince two people at once.” Which is only a very small white lie.

“Convincing him he wasn’t bleeding to death was probably a smart move,” Jeno says. “Probably didn’t even realise what was going on until the pain hit him when you passed out.” He carefully lowers Mark to the ground. He’s still shaking, still weak. He kind of wants to turn away and vomit, but instead just slowly sits on the ground and breathes deep.

“You guys running from something?” Jeno asks.

“I guess it’s not really running from something when they keep the doors open for you to leave.”

“Burrow troubles?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m really glad I found Renjun and not a burrow,” Jaemin says.

“We’re basically a burrow, Jaemin.”

“No, we’re a family.”

And Mark would roll his eyes but his stomach is too busy rolling around for him to notice.

*

When Jaemin had woke up on his eighteenth birthday and hadn’t been able to see his hands, he hadn’t completely panicked. He’d pulled his laptop out and searched and searched and searched and came to the conclusion that his brother was somehow pulling the best prank ever.

When he’d gone down to breakfast, he’d pulled out his regular chair and sat down, and then wondered why his mother didn’t plop a plate down in front of him like she normally did. He was about to ask when she prodded his brother out of his chair, “Go wake your brother up. He knows better than sleeping this late on his birthday. We have things planned.”

Wait. What? She couldn’t see him at all? Should he say something about that? Should he say anything at all? What should he do? In the end, he couldn’t decide which was going to make her freak out more, not being able to see him or him just suddenly disappearing, so he wrote a quick note saying he was out to see the world and that he’d call, and then he’d left without taking anything with him because things like wallets and duffel-bags full of clothes don’t just float down the street.

And he had called, later that same night, and the next, and every single one since. His parents still ask him to come home, and he always says soon, because he isn’t any closer to controlling this than he was a year ago and it’s embarrassing how he suddenly just turns invisible.

He figures he will go home one day, but he’ll have to take Renjun and Jeno who are closer to him than his brother ever was.

*

“How’d you guys meet?” Mark asks after he’s done vomiting. He’s still kneeling on the ground, his stomach still tender, and he needs to get his mind off it. That’s why he hates having to Convince people of something important, how much it takes out of him.

“Jeno broke my bike,” Jaemin says a little too nonchalant.

“What! That was an accident! How many times do I have to tell you I’m sorry?”

“You still broke it! It’s still in seventy-eight pieces!”

When Mark finally looks up, Jeno looks sheepish. “I’d never seen one before.” He glances at Mark. “How inclusive was your burrow? At mine, no one ever got out unless they were staying out.”

“We weren’t that tight knit, but someone leaving was definitely a big deal. They probably wouldn’t take us back at this point and it’s only been a couple of weeks.”

“Mine wouldn’t have taken me back as soon as I broke the fence to get out,” Jeno says, then he turns back to Jaemin. “You need to get over it. It wasn’t even your bike, Jaemin.”

“What’s Renjun’s is mine,” comes Jaemin’s voice.

Jeno’s got a small smile on his face, like he wants to hide it from Jaemin.

“What about Renjun? How’d you meet him?”

“Jaemin said I was going to have to answer to the great overlord for breaking his bike,” Jeno says. “Kind of made me want to wet myself. I’d only been out of the burrow a few weeks at that point and wasn’t used to the outside world.”

“You let my best friend go off with someone who calls himself the great overlord?” Which yeah, Moving is pretty cool, but what? No powers are that serious.

Jaemin cackles. “Renjun has never once called himself the great overlord.”

“Yeah, Jaemin only calls him that to irritate him.”

“Works really well!”

“Renjun says that’s the first words out of your mouth when he found you in his garden.”

“It was! ‘Oh, great overlord, please overlook me, a humble peasant, digging in your dirt for scraps!’ and then he told me to put some clothes on.”

Mark sighs. He feels like he’s probably going to be doing a lot of that in the near future.

*

Renjun looks exhausted when they finally trudge in.

“He’s okay,” he says as soon as he looks up and sees how concerned Mark is. That’s something that Jaemin’s always admired about Renjun, how quick he is to care for people even though he hates them. “I had to call in some favours to get his leg set, but it looks like it’s going to be fine.”

“Oh, thank god,” Mark says. “Thank you.”

“No, it’s cool.”

“Where’s he at?”

“He’s asleep. Up the stairs, to the left.” They all watch Mark scamper up the stairs. “Jaemin, if I could see you, I would hit you. Stop bringing home strays!”

“Hey!”

“No, you’re fine, Jeno, we’re keeping you, but the Minder and Flier need to go.”

“But Renjun!”

“The last thing we need is someone who just got his powers. We already have Jeno breaking every fucking thing and you turning your phone invisible six hundred times a week. And don’t get me started on the Minder. That is not something we’re equipped to deal with. Get rid of them.”

And yeah, Mark makes Jaemin a bit uncomfortable, but their burrow didn’t want them and people being unwanted makes Jaemin sad. Fortunately, he knows all the best ways to get under Renjun’s skin (he’s been perfecting his craft for the past year, after all) and he knows he’s going to get what he wants. So he just crosses his fingers where Renjun can’t see and agrees.

*

Jaemin doesn’t mean to be eavesdropping (yes, yes he does, what else is the point of being able to be invisible?) but he can’t help but hear Haechan bring up his name as he’s passing the makeshift infirmary on his way up to his room.

“I’m pretty sure he’s a crazy person,” Mark says in response to whatever Haechan had said. “Or on drugs. Maybe both.”

“I don’t know, hyung, he took care of us. He didn’t have to do that. He could have ran off and we would have never known he was even there.”

“He didn’t take care of us. He called other people to take care of us.”

“What can an invisible guy really do when someone’s got a bone sticking out of his leg? Push it back in without either of us noticing? Maybe he’s tiny and weak, so he called in someone who can Move and someone with super strength. Quick thinking.”

“Ugh stop fangirling the Changer.”

“If I’m fangirling any of them, it’ll be the Mover. Did you catch his name?”

“Renjun. He’s the burrow leader.”

Which, no, they are not a burrow, Renjun is adamant about that. It’s something that Renjun never talks about, but he’s the last of his entire burrow. Jaemin’s never gotten all the details, never asked, but he imagines that some of them probably died and some of them probably left and that Renjun doesn’t have explanations for some, just that one day, he was the only one left with their bones piled around and their ghosts haunting the place.

Jaemin’s never been part of a burrow, was born into a perfectly ordinary family, but Renjun’s told him stories about his, when it was still around, and Jeno has horror stories that makes the skin want to melt off Jaemin’s bones. People with powers are terrifying, the ways they band together and ruin one another before perfectly ordinary people can.

He’s never understood that, why they call their home a burrow, a safe place to bolt when the world goes mad, and yet, they destroy each other from the inside out. He always thought it was better that it was just him and Renjun, tucked on Renjun’s burrow’s land, a tiny eye in the storm of the world. People from other burrows have moved through, looking for a slice of security, and Renjun has always ushered them through as quickly as possible until Jaemin found Jeno in the nearby town, looking terrified of being caught.

Renjun could probably be a leader of a burrow, he could probably collect up lost souls, people searching for something better than their last burrow, but Renjun doesn’t have time for that, too busy saving Jaemin’s life, slapping band-aids on his wounds and laughing at his hair.

It’s probably easier for these two boys fresh from their burrow to believe that Renjun is a leader, someone to look up to and fear, even though Jaemin’s never been afraid of Renjun. They probably think there’s other people milling about that they haven’t seen, won’t see if they’ve got Changer genes in their blood.

Jaemin knows now that sometimes new powers randomly pop up, but usually birds of a feather flock together. Renjun’s burrow had been known mostly for being Viewers, seeing into the unknown, but some were Movers. Jeno’s had been known for how they could manipulate their own bodies, Change themselves, strength and stretch and shrink.

He wonders what kind of burrow Haechan and Mark had come from, which one of them was the odd one out, why they felt they had to flee. People leaving their burrows is a big decision, how it changes the fabric of the burrow, how it can change the individual’s life if they get caught out in the world, stripped down into nothingness. He wonders how they thought they would make it. 

(He has that thought about himself a lot, late at night when he’s actually visible and still having trouble coping with the world, how he thought he was going to be able to just run away and live like everything was fine when he hadn’t even graduated high school, and never even heard of people like himself before and had no idea what anything was really like. How could he have had that much faith in himself when he trips over his own shoelaces all the time?)

“Young, inn’t he?”

“Obviously he’s pretty capable. The others seem to respect him.”

Which, what? What in all the stories Jaemin told about Renjun on the walk home gave Mark the impression that any one respects Renjun? (Jaemin would follow Renjun to the ends of the Earth, of course, but he’d complain about Renjun’s leadership skill set the whole way there.)

“Yeah, but leader?”

“We’ve apparently been on their land a few days, and Jaemin’s the first one we came across. They’re a small burrow, maybe just starting out. They’re taking in recruits. Jaemin and Jeno both are new here.”

Wow, Mark’s good at getting things all mixed up, but maybe that can work to his advantage. If Mark thinks they’re looking for recruits and they decide they want to stay, they’ll be on their best behaviour, trying to convince Renjun they’ll be worth something. Maybe they’ll convince Renjun on their own, because really, Jaemin has no idea why Renjun let Jaemin stay when he has to mop Jaemin up all the time, help find all his invisible shoes that he leaves strewn about the place, why Renjun let Jeno stay when he sent dozens of others on, people who had better control of themselves and who hadn’t broken the front door thirty times in the four months he’d been there.

“Isn’t that suspicious? A bunch of teenaged boys just starting out with an entire burrow’s worth of land?”

“Not everyone’s from our burrow, Haechan. Things are different out here.” There’s the sound of rustling blankets, like maybe Mark’s tucking Haechan in better. “How are you really feeling?”

“They have a Knitter.”

Um, no, Renjun knows a Knitter, and he’s going to be unbearable now that they’ve had to call in a favour. Jaemin hopes that Haechan’s worth it, because his time isn’t cheap.

“Wow, those are rare.”

“I’ve been thinking, though hyung, what if they’re not? You just said the world’s different out here. We don’t know anything but what our burrow’s told us. What if the world isn’t so scary? What if Knitters and Minders and Movers are more common than we think? What if powers themselves aren’t as rare as we’ve been told? The world is right there, and we know nothing about it.”

“That’s why you came with me, isn’t it?”

“No. I came with you because I’d never leave you by yourself.”

“Even though I tell you what to think?”

“Saved me this time, didn’t it?”

“What about next time? What about when you just don’t agree with me and it annoys me and I make you change who you are?”

“You’d never do that.”

Whatever Mark says next is too quiet for Jaemin to hear, but he does hear someone else on the stairs, so he goes ahead and finishes scurrying to his room even though no one would see him lurking in the shadows.

*

It’s Jaemin’s turn to make dinner (which usually means they get mac and cheese,) but tonight he’s talked Jeno into cooking for him (which is what happens on Jaemin nights that they don’t eat mac and cheese.) Jeno’s been a nice addition to their little family, Renjun thinks, even though he’d never admit it where anyone else could hear it. Jeno keeps Jaemin entertained and out of trouble. He breaks a lot of stuff, which sucks, but he’s always so sorry about it that Renjun can’t help but forgive him. Even when he breaks stuff that’s been in the burrow for hundreds of years.

“You’re going to get hurt if you don’t sit down somewhere,” Jeno’s saying.

“How?”

“I’m going to run into you with this hot frying pan. Or maybe stab you with a knife, something.”

They go through this every time they’re both in the kitchen and Jaemin’s invisible. Jaemin has made the concession to put a shirt over his invisible body, so at least they know approximately where he’s at, but things like his fingers are easy to slam in the fridge door or set pans down on. Jaemin likes to get in the way, be in the center of everything, and that’s always much easier on Jeno when he can see Jaemin.

Renjun never has that much trouble; he tells Jaemin to sit and Jaemin sits. He knows they both look up to him, and it made him uncomfortable when Jaemin first showed up and started following him around, but now he’s a little thankful for it; he’d have kicked them both out long ago if they didn’t listen to him.

“Jaemin,” he says, and Jaemin sighs before flinging himself on the stool next to Renjun. It’s always a bit strange when Jaemin lays his head on Renjun, especially when he’s Changed. Jaemin invisible is a menace.

“What are you working on?”

“Paperwork for the farm.” On paper, the burrow is actually a family farm. Years ago when the burrow was teeming with people, they actually did farm the land so they had less dependence on humanity, but once it became just Renjun, he let all that slide. The government still thinks it’s a farm though.

“You know, if you ever let people stay, we could actually plant more than just some potatoes.”

“Yeah, but then I’d have to put up with more stupid people.”

“Hey,” Jeno says across the kitchen.

“No, you’re fine, Jeno. You’re the only one I want to keep. I keep hoping that Jaemin loses interest and leaves.”

“You’re never getting rid of me, oh great overlord.”

Renjun makes a noise of frustration and pushes Jaemin’s head off his shoulder.

There’s noise in the hallway, and normally that would be a cause for concern because everyone for miles is in the kitchen, but it’s just Mark helping Haechan hobble in.

“There’s a shirt floating in your kitchen,” he says.

“Hi!” Jaemin chirps. “You both are looking a lot better! Less pale, less bloody, I approve.”

“Thank you,” Haechan says, dryly. “Actually, no. Thank you for real. I have no idea where we’d be if it weren’t for you.”

“No problem! Are you guys hungry? I know passing out from overexerting yourself and pain from broken bones takes a lot out of you. It’s my night to make dinner so we’re in for a treat.”

Haechan’s gaze swings between the floating shirt and Jeno stirring a giant pot of sauce on the other side of the room.

“Don’t ask,” Renjun advises him in a low voice, not even glancing up from his paperwork.

“If you don’t mind having us,” Mark says. “We can leave whenever you want us to. You’ve already done so much for us.”

“No, you have to stay at least until Haechan can walk by himself. Wouldn’t want him to restrain that leg.”

Renjun keeps his face carefully blank, but he does dig his knuckles in Jaemin’s side, his hands hidden by the folds of the shirt. Jaemin, to his credit, doesn’t even make a sound; he probably jerks and makes a face, but luckily none of them see Renjun reprimanding Jaemin.

Then again, he doesn’t want to waste a gift from the Knitter. Better make sure that Haechan’s fully healed before they trek off and his leg shatters again while they’re still on burrow land. “Yeah, you should probably stay a few days. Where were you guys headed?” Even though plenty of people have trekked through the burrow looking for something better and none of them have ever had a destination in mind; when people run, they rarely think it through, just know they’ve got to go.

“New York,” Mark says. “My mom’s from there. She says the city is full of people like us and no one needs a burrow to feel safe.”

Renjun grunts and is about to say that burrows aren’t for making people feel safe, when Jeno does it for him. “Being in a burrow shouldn’t make you feel safe. The people around you should make you feel safe. New York is a long way away. Do you plan on walking the whole way there?””

Mark looks stumped, but Haechan jumps in. “We had planned on flying once we got far enough away from our burrow. But that looks like it’s going to be a bad idea.”

“Maybe make a better plan while Haechan heals?” Renjun suggests, because hey, he isn’t even going to have to kick them off his property, they’re going to go on their own. He can wait a few days for that.

*

“That’s so weird,” Haechan says. He hasn’t actually eaten any of his food yet, too fascinated with invisible Jaemin and his digestion habits.

“You get used to it quick,” Jeno answers. He’s not even watching the floating fork and the disappearing food, just shoveling his food in his mouth as quickly as he can, like it might disappear if he doesn’t. And who knows? Jaemin seems like the type to eat everyone’s food when they’re not looking.

Jaemin probably sticks his tongue out, because suddenly there’s a blob of chewed up food sticking out approximately where Jaemin’s face is.

“Jaemin,” Renjun says, and the food promptly disappears. “We have guests. Stop being a caveman.”

“No promises,” Jaemin says, but he seems to be on good behaviour for the rest of the meal. Haechan can see why Renjun’s the leader of this burrow, how even mouthy Jaemin jumps to listen to him. He wonders why this burrow isn’t more like his and Mark’s had been, a sense of community, group meals.

“Where is everyone else?” he finally asks.

“This is it,” Renjun says.

“So you’re just starting to establish your burrow?”

“We’re not a burrow,” Jaemin says.

Renjun nods, but Jeno doesn’t look convinced.

“Burrows are trouble,” Renjun says. “You guys ran from yours. Jeno ran from his. People are always trying to escape. We don’t want that.”

“We don’t either,” says Mark, but Haechan always thought that Mark was more anxious about leaving the burrow than he was, and Mark had less to lose. “We just want to be free.”

“The American dream,” Jaemin sings.

Renjun rolls his eyes so hard that Mark winces.

*

When Mark starts gathering up the dishes from the table, Renjun clears his throat. “Jeno, help Haechan up the stairs please. Jaemin, you’re on dishes.”

“That’s not fair. I made dinner. It’s your dish night.”

Renjun doesn’t even bother trying to glare at Jaemin. “It’s interesting how you try and get out of dishes every single night you’re invisible.”

“Fine, fine, but when I cut myself on a knife again…”

“I’ll patch you up again, I promise.” Plates start floating out of the room and Renjun catches Mark’s eye. “Can I have a word?”

Mark nods and follows him down a short hallway; Renjun’s pretty sure he hears Jaemin’s shirt hit the ground and the door swing open one more time. Ugh, Jaemin and his super power of being nosy.

“How old is Haechan?” Renjun asks when they’re standing in the middle of the front room, which is not what Mark was expecting, judging by the look on his face.

“His 18th birthday was six weeks ago.”

“You yanked him out right before he committed to the burrow. How does he feel about that?” Because usually it was exciting, being committed to a burrow. Usually people are a lot older, a lot more rundown, when they start thinking about leaving, when everything starts piling up around them. 

“You don’t understand. We’ve talked about leaving ever since my commitment ceremony. Once he got control of not floating off, he woke me up in the middle of the night, ready to go.”

“You don’t think they’re looking for you, do you?” Because some burrows can’t let go, will search the world over to regain control of something they’ve lost.

Mark shakes his head. “They didn’t care if I left. Minders aren’t worth the trouble. They never knew if they were controlling me or if I was controlling them. Made ‘em nervous. And Haechan…”

“He’s a Flier. Too flashy to be worth much,” Renjun considers. Maybe he won’t have an irate burrow showing up on his lawn.

“You’d think that. When he woke up floating, the whole burrow was excited. But he’s always been loyal to me, so.”

“What kind of burrow did you leave?”

“They’re mostly Flamers and Benders.”

“Defensive people. Haechan was going to be their scout, their sacrifice if they needed one, probably.”

“Probably,” Mark agrees. “If he’d been just a Flamer, I was going to leave him. It’d been easier for him to be with his own.”

It probably would have been easier for Mark, too, Convincing people to help a pretty boy out on his own. He probably wouldn’t even have had to use his powers often.

“He never would have forgave you.”

“Eventually he would have forgotten me.”

Renjun hums. "And you're sure they won't follow you?"

"Positive."

What a relief.

*

Sometime over night, Jaemin becomes visible, so when Mark literally runs into him in the hall just before dawn he looks a bit wary. “You’re a lot taller than I was expecting,” he says when he must realise who it is.

Jaemin laughs. “I probably could have dragged you home after you passed out yesterday. Just easier with Jeno.”

“You told him not to break me. Twice.”

“I thought you were passed out for that.”

“I’m a Minder. I’m constantly aware of the minds around me.”

“That’s scary. Can you read my mind?”

“More like impressions. Your dirty secrets are safe from me.”

“Good to see you this morning, Jaemin,” Jeno says brightly when they finally push their way into the kitchen.

“Good to be seen.” It’s something Jaemin says every time he’s been stuck invisible for any extended period of time, and he shoots up a peace sign when Renjun rolls his eyes.

“Is Haechan still asleep?”

“Yeah, should I go wake him?”

“No, let him sleep. He’ll need all he can get as he recovers. Having bones Knitted back together is draining,” which Jaemin’s never considered before. He always thought that the one with the power was the one drained, but maybe Knitters run differently. There’s still a lot about magic and powers that Jaemin doesn’t understand.

“Okay. Do you mind keeping an eye on him today? I think I’m going to head back to town and get some supplies for when we go.”

“No problem. Jaemin can drive you into town.”

“It’s alright, you’ve already done so much. Besides, the walk will be nice to clear my head. Still a lot of static from yesterday.”

Renjun nods like he understands, and maybe he does. Maybe there was a Minder in his burrow before they all withered away. Or maybe he’s empathic and has such a prickly barrier to keep all that at bay. Whatever it is, Renjun just points out the trail to get to the nearby town, offers use of one of the bikes and then heads out to the barn for whatever it is he does there every single morning from sunup until breakfast.

Jaemin sits around the kitchen with Jeno until Jeno’s ready to head out to take care of the goats. It’s Jaemin’s favourite time of the day, not that he’d ever admit to it, just watching the farm come to life, the few animals they’ve got left waking up and stretching.

Though, it’s always easier when he’s invisible and the murderous chickens can’t see and chase him.

*

Renjun knew it was going to happen before it actually happened.

He’s not a prophet, but his burrow had been full of Viewers and so he has a touch of foresight, but this? This is obvious; even if the Minder hadn’t pretty much told him the night before, he could read it in every line of Mark’s face this morning. And he’s pretty sure there’s nothing he could do to stop it, because if not here, then it would have just happened somewhere else where Haechan would be less capable of handling it.

A letter’s sitting on the kitchen table, Haechan’s name on it in flowery handwriting that doesn’t match Renjun’s perception of Mark. He knows what’s in the letter even though he doesn’t open it. He could probably recite it word for word, because he’d found dozens of letters just like it two years ago, piled in this same spot.

When Haechan stumbles into the kitchen mid-afternoon, sleep still in his eyes, Renjun’s still sitting there, staring at it, like maybe he can change what it says with enough force.

“Renjun?” Haechan says. “What’s wrong?” He’s only been there since yesterday, but he can already read Renjun like Jaemin can, intimately, carefully, deeply.

“Mark’s gone.” Because there’s no other way to say it.

Haechan freezes for a moment and then eases himself into the chair next to Renjun carefully. His leg is fixed, the bones and skin and marrow Knitted carefully back together, but it’s still sore, will be for days to come. “What?”

“He got up this morning and tried to leave before anyone woke up, but we’re all early risers. He said he was going to town, but left that behind.” Renjun nods towards the envelope and Haechan reaches for it, cracks the seal carefully.

He pales as he reads it. “He says it’s for my own good.”

“I thought it might.”

“Why would he do this?”

“He thinks it’s safer for you, probably.”

“That’s exactly what it says. It’ll be safer here for me without a Minder dragging me down.”

“Ugh,” Renjun says. He’s thought about Moving out, or maybe just trekking out on foot, because really, Mark couldn’t have gotten far yet, even if he’d slapped the letter down as soon as Jaemin and Jeno headed out to the pens this morning. This isn’t going according to plan, and Renjun’s just a touch furious at how the cocky little jerk had dumped the kid and ran at the first chance.

“I can’t believe he’d do this. We had plans for the rest of our lives. And now. He’s just gone.” Haechan looks more upset than Renjun’s seen him yet, and Renjun’s seen him with bone sticking out of his leg, held his hand as a Knitter sealed his flesh back together. “What am I going to do?”

Renjun wants to reach out and tell him it’ll be alright, that Mark will change his mind and come back, but Renjun’s not in the habit of sugarcoating things. “You can stay here until we figure this out,” he says, even though he doesn’t want to.

*

“I told you he was shady.”

“Jaemin, that’s not nice.”

“No, Jaemin’s right for once.”

It makes Jaemin jerk around when Renjun agrees with him. “Yeah, I’m right for once.” It makes them all a little uncomfortable though when people are agreeing with him. “How’d Haechan take it?”

“Better than expected, but. How would you feel if I just disappeared in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting in a bunch of strangers’ living room. I’d be out looking for you, even though you could have Moved across the world. I’d kick your ass.”

“Jaemin, you can’t kick the side of the barn.”

“Fine. I’d get Jeno to kick your ass.”

And Jeno probably would. He looks a little upset just thinking about Renjun leaving. “What are we going to do? Are we keeping him?”

“Looks like we’re going to have to. Can’t send someone freshly eighteen with uncontrollable powers out into the world on his own with a broken leg that was Knitted back together yesterday. He’d probably end up floating off and dropping a thousand miles.”

“On his own. You had no problems wanting to kick him out when Mark was here.”

“Shut up, Jaemin.”

Jaemin grins and obediently shuts up.

*

Jeno’s always been the type to do as he’s told. 

Always. Without fail. 

His burrow leader and the burrow elders had always liked how meek he was, silent, obedient. He’d followed his teachers around with wonder in his eyes, watched the other Benders in awe. Always underfoot, but always so polite, eager. 

He’d always been strong for his age, even before his power firmly set in when he turned eighteen, always the one others turned to for cutting firewood and moving fallen branches. Dependable, is what they called him. 

He’d followed every direction his old burrow leader had ever given him, walked into fires and picked up boulders and tore trees older than himself in half. When the burrow leader had told him to rip the door off the house of some people who disagreed with the burrow, Jeno hadn’t even thought twice, just reached out and took the entire frame from the structure, molding broken into kindling between his fingers; he had picked splinters from his skin for days, but he still feels a small surge of pleasure for being needed. 

The first time he’d ever disregarded anything the burrow leader had said, he’d turned straight around and walked through a wall older than time. It’d been built up over the life of the burrow, one wall built on top of the next, concrete and barbed wire and wood, and he’d crashed through it without a thought, six feet that was supposed to protect them from the world, and there he was, letting everything in with only four tiny scratches on his hands. 

He’d listened to the screaming, little girls crying, chaos erupting because no one alive had ever seen the walls gaping open, the darkness of the surrounding woods bleeding in. He’d sat there, by the hole, for hours and hours, waiting for the burrow leader to follow, to check and see where his precious helper had gone, but the burrow leader never so much as poked his head out of his hut. 

The next morning, some of the elders pulled out logs and mud, started piling them across the opening, not even glancing at Jeno still huddled by the wall, someone they had all doted on, someone whose family had been one of the first families in this burrow. He wondered where his own father was, why he wasn’t out helping seal the breach, keeping the burrow safe from ordinary eyes, because nothing was more important than keeping the burrow safe, not even golden teenaged boys throwing tantrums. 

So eventually he’d picked himself up and left, walking away from the sounds of the burrow waking up, away from everything he’d ever known. He hadn’t ever planned to leave, not like Mark and Haechan or Renjun’s entire burrow, but it had happened, one little sentence enough to make Jeno cause a scene when he’d always been so careful to be unseen. 

And he’d walked for days and days before he’d come to that little town, the forest dark and deep and not as terrifying as he’d always been told. The town had been terrifying though, strange people lurking around doorways, loud monsters in the streets. It was stranger than anything his burrow leader had had him do, any of the feats or training the elders had lead him through. 

When Jaemin had found him (mouthy little Jaemin with his mouth full of words Jeno hadn’t understood) and told him to follow, he hadn’t even questioned it, just fell into line, clutching the seventy eight pieces of Jaemin’s broken bike to his chest, certain he was about to meet his doom. 

So yes, Jeno’s always been the type to do as he’s told, but he’s even more careful to do as Renjun says. Renjun’s the one that always has fire in his eyes, but his words are usually gentle, firm.

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Jaemin asks. 

"We won't know until the end," Renjun says softly. He looks downtrodden, unsatisfied. "I'm just worried about what's best for Haechan."

That gives Jeno pause, because Renjun is usually only focused on them, what's best for them, not the outside world.

"Do you think we should send him back?"

"I'll take him, if you want me to," Jeno hears himself offering when Renjun doesn't answer, even though he has no idea how he would even go about that. Jeno doesn't even really know how he got here, let alone how he'd find his way to somewhere none of them knew. He'd try for Renjun, though. 

Jaemin cracks a smile. "Yeah? Break open their gate and throw him back in? They don't want him anymore."

"What if they do?" Renjun looks torn. "What if Mark was wrong, and if Haechan went back, they'd welcome him with open arms?"

Jaemin looks at him through slanted eyes. "Do you really believe that?"

"Not really." He sighs and Jeno wants nothing more than to make it better. "I guess we'll just see what happens"

Because, really, what else can they do?

*

“Are you alright?” Jaemin asks the next morning when he passes Haechan in the hallway. 

“I’m fine.” Even though he has purple rings around his eyes and he won’t meet Jaemin’s gaze. 

“You don’t like look fine.”

“Then stop looking at me,” Haechan snaps, which is completely unlike what Jaemin’s noticed about him. 

Jaemin’s not good at being comforting, but he also knows he probably shouldn’t yell for Renjun to come solve all his problems either, so he takes a step closer. “Haechan.”

“It’s okay. I’ll _be_ fine.” 

Jaemin considers for just a moment. “Wanna go somewhere cool?”

“I don’t know. Are you hiding Mark there and you’re going to let me punch him?

“No? But it’d be really cool if I was.”

Haechan sighs and pushes his hair back off his face. “Fine. Show me this cool place.”

*

Jaemin’s favourite place on the farm is the old silo that stands down near the edge of the property. It’s old, a bit decrepit, a little too worn down to actually be used for storing anything, so even if the farm was functional, they wouldn’t use it. Instead, it stands guard, something soothing that can be seen from almost anywhere on the farm. When Jaemin had first come, he used to spend hours down here, sitting where grain used to be piled high, pretending he was part of something more, not a scared little boy hiding. 

He’s gotten over the being scared part, but he’s still hoping to be part of something big. 

Haechan looks a little in awe when Jaemin shoves the doors open. “I’ve never seen anything this tall before.”

“I’ve seen bigger,” Jaemin says, swinging up on the ladder to reach the spiraling staircase along the walls. “In cities, they have buildings that touch the sky.” 

“How do they stay upright?” 

Jaemin shrugs and reaches down to pull Haechan up. “Physics? Calculus? Something to do with math, I don’t know what. I don’t build buildings.” He turns and starts up the staircase. 

No one besides Jaemin’s been in the old silo in years, not since Renjun’s burrow had deserted him. It’s become his, in a way; every dozen or so steps, he’s held his hands against the walls and waited until he’s Changed so light streams in through the invisible patches. At the top of the staircase, he’s turned a ring around the entire building invisible, so he can see as far as the town, miles and miles away. 

“Is this safe?” Haechan asks when he finally makes it to the top, a lot slower than Jaemin, each step careful and determined. Jaemin should have thought about Haechan’s leg just Knitted back together two days ago, but well. The view should be worth it. 

“Yeah, this is where I practice.” Not that he’s noticed a difference at all since he’s started. He still disappears mid-sentence sometimes, still spends days wondering if he’ll ever be visible again. “There’s actually a floor up here.” And he steps out over the last step up onto nothingness. “Come on.”

“Nah, man, I’m cool,” Haechan says, sticking to the wall where he can see grated floor underneath his feet.

They look out at the view for a moment before Jaemin’s super power kicks in. “Where was your burrow at?” he asks.

“No idea. I don’t think they taught us actual places that the rest of the world knows, just territories and burrows. Mark seemed to know his way, though.”

“Had he been planning on leaving for a while?”

“Our whole lives. We were like five, the first time we played that we were adventuring out in the real world. We never thought we’d stay with our burrow.” 

“Burrows seem a bit intense,” Jaemin says, diplomatically. Renjun doesn’t bring his burrow up often, but Jeno has stories that make Jaemin want to hide him from the world. Jeno still has nightmares about being trapped under rubble, being forced to break his way out or suffocate, carrying his entire family through ravines full of monsters. 

“They don’t seem like that until you’re on the outside looking in. It never seemed that crazy when I was there.”

“Then why did you want to leave?”

That has Haechan stumped. He leans against the clear wall, gazes out at town. “Because Mark did.”

“Why did he want to leave then?” 

Haechan turns where he can stare at Jaemin. “It was different for him. More pressure, people always trying to force him into their heads. The burrow leaders never trusted him, not after they found out what he could do. They just wanted to use him.”

“Where did his power come from?” Because, suddenly having a Minder in the middle of a bunch of Flamers and Fliers seems a little weird to Jaemin. Not that he really knows much about how these things work. 

“His mom’s burrow, I guess. I don’t know. We all thought he didn’t get anything at first, but then he suddenly started getting his way all the time. They were going to kick him out until the burrow leader put it all together.” 

“Do they do that often? Kick out people who never have powers manifest?”

“Yeah. One of Mark’s older brother’s didn’t get anything. It's why everyone thought Mark was following the family tradition. He left when he turned nineteen. The burrow leader told us he’d decided to go to college out in the real world, to be with people more like him, but Mark never believed it, especially after we figured out his Minding."

“Does anyone perfectly ordinary ever stay?”

Haechan looks down. “Not at our burrow. Others may be different, but what’s the point of having a safe hiding place when someone you’re hiding from is right there? Regular people never trust us, so why would they want to stay?”

It makes Jaemin think about the reasons he’d run from his family, why he hadn’t trusted them enough to tell them he’d suddenly fallen invisible. Was there any truth to what Haechan was saying? Would his family have eventually accepted him? 

Why hadn’t he stuck around to find out?

*

Haechan, for being freshly eighteen and being left with a ton of strangers with a serious physical injury, is an eager helper.

“You know, you really don’t have to do this,” Jaemin says a few mornings later. Jeno’s left him to feed the chickens because he thinks it’s hilarious, but Haechan’s crawled right into the coop so he doesn’t have to.

“Nah, earning my keep.”

“Renjun didn’t make me do anything for weeks after I first got here, and my leg wasn’t randomly pounding from being haphazardly Knit back together.”

“Haphazardly? Is Lucas a poor Knitter?”

“Not usually,” Jaemin concedes. “He's just talks so much, I’d rather stay hurt than have him come in and fix whatever it is.”

“You ramble more than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

“Funny, everyone always says that. I don’t get it. I’m such a quiet soul, people never even see me.” 

Haechan laughs, which is nice, because Haechan has been moping since Mark left. He scatters some more feed, then crawls back through the pen door. “What next?”

Jeno’s probably going to have things to say when he finds out Jaemin’s letting Haechan do all the hard work, and he doesn’t even want to think about Renjun. The pair of them have taken Haechan under their respective wings, coddle him in ways that neither of them have ever coddled Jaemin.

It would make Jaemin kind of jealous, but he finds himself getting caught up in Haechan’s orbit, too. He can’t really see how Mark left Haechan behind so easily when he’s ready to follow Haechan to the ends of the earth after only a week in his presence. More proof that Minders aren’t to be trusted, he guesses.

“Next are the goats!” Jaemin chirps. ”We have a nanny that likes to eat people!”

Haechan snorts and follows where Jaemin leads. 

*

The Farm is liberating, in a lot of ways, Haechan has decided. For one, there are no fences, no doors he can’t open. (He made the mistake of stumbling into Jeno’s room once, and that was a shamble of broken bits that he never really wants to re-encounter, so while he can open Jeno’s door, he chooses not to.) 

There aren’t many rules here. Pitch in. Stop Jaemin from accidentally setting himself on fire. Play nice. It’s nice, but it’s a little weird, too. He’s used to checklists for his days, to-do lists written on the underside of his wrist so he won’t forget, rules wrapped around every single thought he has. 

It’s weird that Renjun doesn’t have things like that in place, even though he claims he’ll never be a burrow leader, and unlike Mark, Haechan can see why Renjun would never be a really good one. Yeah, he leads them, keeps them all on track, protects them, but Haechan has lived through three different burrow leaders’ command, and Renjun is nothing like that, the fear that they inspired. 

Oh, Haechan has read history books (not that he believes everything he’s learned from the burrow school books anymore,) leading through fear, and he guesses that might be a good idea for some, keeps burrows of terrified, extraordinary people in line so they don’t set out to take over the world, but Haechan prefers this, quiet nights where they’re piled in the living room, popcorn and a roaring fire and Jaemin smacking himself in the face trying to play Fortnite. 

He can’t imagine anything like this happening at his old burrow, the camaraderie, how they always seek each other out. He used to hide from everyone but Mark and his parents, kept to shadows, especially after his powers manifested. 

He wonders if it's more like this, out in the regular world, if this is how perfectly ordinary people interact with each other, if this is what he's missed out on, being so special.

Not that he feels special. No. He feels like a problem, uncontrollable with messy emotions. He's still crying himself to sleep when he thinks the others can't hear, and sometimes even when he knows they can. He can't help it, and they keep telling him he seems to be holding it together pretty well, but...

He's never been allowed to cry before. He's never been able to have breakdowns like this before. He's never been allowed to do anything, have anything, and the freedom is welcome, but it's also petrifying. 

*

Jaemin’s favourite chore is town duty. It’s Jeno and Renjun’s least, so Jaemin’s almost always the one trudging into town and making the rounds, buying butter and such. He thinks it’s because he grew up in a town similar to this one, so he’s used to perfectly ordinary people going about their lives. 

The locals like him, seem to believe he’s out at the old Hill Farm on a work study program. The old ladies at the bakery always pinch his cheeks and give him free pie, and the checkout girl at the grocery store always tries to give him her number, and the guys that sit around at the hardware store seem to enjoy his stories. They all seem worried when he misses a week, which Jaemin appreciates. 

“Take Haechan with you,” Renjun calls as Jaemin’s checking the truck over and making sure all his limbs are visible. That’d be embarrassing, missing an arm and not realizing it while trying to load up feed for the goats.

“Come, little one,” Jaemin sings, twirling through the kitchen. “We’ve got to stock up on macaroni and cheese, and maybe buy some shoes.”

The look on Haechan’s face is a bit wary. “What if I float off and ruin your cover?” He hasn’t been to town yet, hidden away and recouping, even though his leg has been all healed up for weeks. Jaemin guesses it’s hard, being abandoned by your best friend. Also, Jeno says the real world is a little scary after living your entire life behind walls, when you’ve been taught that perfectly ordinary people are out there to destroy you. 

Jaemin shrugs. “I’m sure this town is used to the old Hill Farm being full of weirdos. Renjun’s burrow has been here for centuries.” 

“Okay, weirdos. How would you explain me floating off in the grocery store?”

“You’re full of gas?” 

Haechan doesn’t look impressed, but he dutifully finishes tidying the kitchen and puts his shoes on.

*

“So, this is town,” Jaemin says when they roll into view. 

Haechan has never been to a town before, kept carefully to the country side when he’d been hiding with Mark, and before that, he’d never left the burrow. It’s a bit overwhelming, how many strangers he can see from the safety of the truck. When Jaemin pulls over, the truck clanking, Haechan doesn’t want to get out, have so many eyes on him. 

“It’s so big,” Haechan finally says.

Jaemin chuckles. “This is what’s known as a one horse town, even though there’s a horse farm just down that road over there. It’s small. One day I’m going to take you to a real city and blow your mind.”

Which makes Haechan feel warm enough to open his truck door. It’s nice, being reminded that they’re planning on keeping him around long enough to drag him around the world. He carefully walks around the edge of the truck and takes a deep breath. “If I start floating, please keep me anchored.”

“Promise,” Jaemin agrees and clamps a friendly hand on Haechan’s shoulder. 

*

When Renjun wakes up, he’s in the mood for French toast, which is kind of sad because it’s Jaemin’s morning for breakfast, and that usually means cereal, unless Jaemin is feeling adventurous, and then it means frozen waffles. He could make French toast himself, but he tries not to do Jaemin’s chores whenever he can. You know, don’t spoil the child and make him think he can run wild and do nothing. 

He hits the hall blearily and immediately smells cinnamon and rich maple syrup, which makes him suspicious, because he’s almost always the first one up and he’s the only one that knows where the good syrup is hidden. Wouldn’t do for Jeno or Jaemin to waste it all on a whim, feed it to the goats or cover themselves with it or whatever it is they do when they’re being fucking idiots.

He’s on the bottom step before he smells the faint traces of sugared strawberries, because he hadn’t even realised he wants strawberries on top. (It’s how his old burrow leader had made French toast, always on special occasions, before she’d become nothing but bone and dust. It always reminds him of his childhood, in a way, strawberries soaked in sugar, sweet and crunchy from the crystals. He feels a tiny pang of nostalgia.) He even thinks he can hear the twang of the local morning radio show, even though no one at the burrow listens anymore.

On the whole, he’s not too surprised when he enters the kitchen and sees one of his old burrow members propped up at the counter with a platter of French toast and a big cup of coffee and extra cream waiting on him.

“Good morning, Huang Renjun,” Yang Yang greets. 

Renjun makes a face, because it’s been forever since anyone has called him by his full name, and really, he hadn’t expected to see Yang Yang ever again. It’s been, what, three years, four, since he left? “What are you doing back?”

Yang Yang gives a small shrug. “I was in the area.”

He raises a brow and sits at the counter, pulling the heaping plate towards himself. He’s going to eat this entire stack and not save any for the others, which serves them right for sleeping through people invading the house. He digs in, and it’s just like he remembers, airy and syrupy and delicious. “That’s not really an answer.” Because Yang Yang’s always in the area, traveling, dodging through familiar towns. Renjun’s seen posters for Yang Yang’s show when he’s been in town getting supplies.

“I decided I missed your smiling face.”

Renjun frowns into his French toast. “My smiling face has been in the same place since everybody followed you away and left me here alone.” 

“I thought…” and then he leans forward and goes to place his hand on Renjun’s bare arm, but Renjun jerks away. 

“Stop trying to read me.”

He nods at the stack of French toast. “You know I don’t have to actually touch you to read you. I just wanted a closer look.” 

“I know, and while others enjoy your little show, I don’t have time for it today.” Or ever, ugh. He thought he was done with trying to shield his mind from pesky interlopers. 

Yang Yang looks at him, a bit sad, as Renjun tucks back in. Renjun knows it’s probably a bit telling that he hasn’t already kicked Yang Yang out, chased him off the farm with threats of pitch forks and fire and the police, but well, Yang Yang could read every desire in Renjun’s head while still on the dirt road to the farmhouse, most likely. They sit in silence for a moment, the drone of the radio in the background. 

“Renjun?” 

And really, if Renjun had been expecting anyone, it would have been Jaemin and his superpower of being nosy that interrupted, not Jeno. “Good morning, Jeno,” he says calmly, taking another bite of his French toast.

“Jeno? And I thought our burrow handed out weird names.” 

Jeno just looks confused, and not at all offended, so Renjun gets offended for him. “If you’re going to be like that, you can leave now.”

“You don’t really want me to leave.”

And no, Renjun doesn’t, but he should, and he knows that. He sighs and rakes a hand over his face. “Shut up.”

“Renjun, who is this?” Jeno asks. 

“Meet Yang Yang. He was being groomed to take over this burrow from the second his power manifested early. Instead, he ran away to tell people’s fortunes on the street.” 

Jeno looks wary at that, but leans over to shakes hands because he’s the most polite person on this farm, and god, Renjun knows one day that’s going to be Jeno’s downfall. 

“Don’t touch him,” Renjun snaps. 

“Why not?” Yang Yang asks, but drops his hand a few centimeters from Jeno’s. 

“You know why not. I won’t have you putting stuff in Jeno’s head.”

“I wouldn’t be putting anything that wasn’t already there. I’d just be telling him what was already hiding.” 

“Not everyone needs you to tell them that.” 

“Are you a Viewer?” Jeno asks. He’s walked around the island, put it between himself and Yang Yang, which Renjun thoroughly approves of. Yang Yang’s a shady bastard that can twist what you’re thinking without that being part of his power at all.

“Kind of. I read desires.”

“That doesn’t seem so bad.”

“I wore gloves for the first year, so I wouldn’t go crazy every time I accidentally touched someone. People want weird things.” 

Jeno looks a little bit like he had never considered that, like he pities Yang Yang already, and Renjun knows, nothing good can come of this.

*

Renjun's huddled in the hallway, his back pressed against the swinging door to the kitchen so he can catch his breath and no one can follow him out. Of course, he knew that wouldn't stop Jaemin for long, not when Jaemin can sense secrets lingering in the air like old men can sense the coming rain. He breathes in deep, holds it for a moment, and releases when he feels Jaemin standing over him. Damn Jaemin and his knowledge of all the secret doors in the place. 

"If you don't want him here, why don't you make him leave?"

Renjun swears under his breath. "It's complicated." 

"Want me to run him off?"

Renjun scoffs, but kind of wants to laugh at the image of shoestring Jaemin running off anyone at all. Maybe if he got Jeno on his side. 

Jaemin's quiet, which is always a sign of his superpower kicking in, how he knows when silence will get him what he wants faster than if he kept rambling, so Renjun cuts to the chase. "Technically, he legally owns this place. The burrow leader didn't have a chance to change her will before fading away. My control here was just supposed to be until Yang Yang saw reason and came back." 

"You don't think he's here to run us off, do you?"

"I wish I knew." It'd make everything so much easier.

*

Yang Yang is shuffling tarot cards when Renjun makes his way into the kitchen that evening. “Oh god, really?” Because even though Renjun knows that’s Yang Yang’s show, how he makes his living, he hadn’t expected Yang Yang to pull out his cards and try and tell Jaemin’s fortune. 

“Shh,” Jaemin says. “He’s about to tell Haechan that he becomes rich and famous.”

Renjun sighs, props his hip against the counter, watches as Yang Yang drops a few cards, the tower face up on the counter. “You know he’s not a Viewer.” 

“Perfectly ordinary people have been telling fortunes with tarot cards for hundreds of years. I don’t see why Yang Yang can’t have that talent, too.”

Yang Yang spreads the cards facedown, and gives a winsome smile. “Usually when I do this, I just see what people want me to tell them, but since Renjun refuses to let me touch any of you, you’ll have to wait a few days until I get used to reading you through the air.” He pulls a guidebook out of his bag. “This’ll be just what I’ve learned about the actual cards, which isn’t much.”

“The great Yang Yang has a following on the Internet of hundreds of thousands, and you can’t even give us accurate readings? Boo."

But Renjun's barely paying attention. A few days. Yang Yang is planning to stick around for a few days. Once upon a time that was all he wanted, a few pieces of his old burrow back. 

Once upon a time, all he had wanted was _Yang Yang_ back. They'd grown up in each other's shadow, and Renjun had spent his life thinking they'd be together forever, not necessarily the closest friends, but always an arm's reach away.

Haechan pulls all wand cards and the moon card and Yang Yang cracks open his guidebook before he starts spewing nonsense about Leos and growth.

“Who’s Mark?” Yang Yang asks when he's done and Haechan's left the room, rolling his eyes. 

“Long story,” Jaemin says, plopping down on the stool Haechan just vacated. He reaches out for the cards. "Don't bring his name up again."

Yang Yang nods solemnly and cracks his fingers, preparing for another round.

*

Jaemin's always been the stealthiest person Renjun knows. It's part of the reason that he says that being nosy is Jaemin's real super power, how Jaemin can make his steps feather-soft, the sound of his breath a mere whisper of the wind, his very presence so easily overlooked that sometimes Renjun is surprised to find Jaemin lurking when he's not invisible. 

So it shouldn't be anything new to see Jaemin craned over the edge of the banister, his hair long enough to be visible from the living room if Jeno and Yang Yang happened to glance over in the direction of the staircase. 

Renjun sighs. "Jaemin. What are you doing?" He doesn't bother to even lower his voice and he snickers a bit when Jaemin glares at him upside down through the slats of the banister. 

"You know nothing about the element of surprise, do you?"

"What do I need the element of surprise for? Are we planning an attacking on Jeno? Need I remind you that he's accidentally broke your fingers? Twice?" 

Jaemin makes a face and swings back upright. "The first time doesn't count. He didn't even touch me." 

"It counts," Jeno calls from the couch. "Why wouldn't it count?"

"He doesn’t want you to be sad," Yang Yang says, and then he winces. 

Renjun had been having fun at the exchange, but Yang Yang's comment makes him pause. He's pretty sure that Yang Yang's been keeping his hands to himself, so that means that he's been around long enough to start reading them through the air, soaking in their hopes and dreams like osmosis. Which means he's probably been back too long.

"Really, man?" Jeno asks, leaning his head back on the couch so he can see Jaemin and Renjun still halfway down the stairs. 

"No," Jaemin pouts. "No idea where he got that idea. I hate Jeno. Don't really care how sad he is. I'm going to send pictures of dead kittens to his phone."

Jeno snorts. "That'll make you more sad than me."

Jaemin puts some more before founding away to find Haechan. This probably means it's time for Renjun to say something. 

*

"I can only see their superficial desires, I haven't been here long enough for more," Yang Yang says in a rush when Renjun corners him later that evening. 

"Jaemin protecting Jeno from himself is a superficial desire?" Renjun's got his arms crossed and he has on what Jaemin calls his serious face. It's usually enough to make Jaemin and Jeno (and more recently Haechan) be on their very best behaviour. "You even knowing Mark's name is for some shallow reason?"

"It's more of a passing fancy?" Yang Yang tries. 

Renjun takes a deep breath and does his best not to punch Yang Yang right in the face like he’s wanted to do since they were children. “Look. I don’t want you in their heads. They’ve all been hurt by people like us, and I don’t even need you to tell me that I want to keep them safe.”

“I can’t help it. They’re all reaching out to me.”

“Put your gloves back on and start closing your mind around them. It’s one thing when it’s me that you’re messing with. It’s another when it’s Jaemin.”

“What about Jeno?” 

Renjun’s glare gets a little darker. 

“Okay, okay.” Yang Yang puts his hands up. “I don’t see what the big deal is though. It’s not like I can tell them anything they don’t know.” 

“You warp things all the time. You might not even mean to, but you change things when you say them. Like earlier. Maybe Jaemin knew he was protecting Jeno all this time. But maybe he didn’t. Maybe Jeno was just the brother Jaemin never had. But now every time Jaemin reaches out for Jeno, he’s going to think about what you said and it’s going to temper everything he does from here on out." 

"Renjun..."

"No. You always do this. You did it before and you're doing it now. You change stuff just to see if you can get away with it. You did it when you left; you sat in town and waited to see if everyone would follow you. You destroyed our home, just to see if you could." 

He looks taken back, like he hadn't realised anyone had noticed him out there, just a few miles from them all as they turned into dandelion fluff in autumn. 

Renjun takes another deep breath and holds it until his hands stop shaking where they're clenched at his side. When he exhales, Jaemin has materialized out of thin air, his hand on Renjun's shoulder.

"I think it's time you told us what _you_ want," Jaemin says quietly.

Yang Yang blinks at them like no one has ever asked him that before. "I… want to come home."

Renjun snorts. "No, you don't. What is it you really want?"

"No, I do want to come home. It's just, not here anymore, is it? None of you want me here."

Jaemin looks sheepish. "Just because this isn't your home anymore doesn't mean it couldn't be again."

"No. There's too much history here."

"Maybe you could find a new one then. Finally stop running?"

"Yeah," Yang Yang agrees, but he doesn't look like he believes it. "Maybe."

*

Yang Yang packs up the next morning, his rucksack a little heavier than when he arrived. Renjun knows, he's got pieces of their burrow buried in deeply, a photo album, maybe a pair of silver candlesticks that their old burrow leader used during ceremonies, a stuffed animal someone had left behind.

The others leave them to say goodbye, but Renjun can feel Jaemin's gaze on his back as they walk towards town.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but they all want the same thing that you do."

"Yeah? And want is it that I want?" He's never encouraged Yang Yang with this before, but if this is goodbye, maybe he could let him this once.

Yang Yang smiles, bright and gummy. "To keep them."

And Renjun does. He wants them all close by where he can keep them safe, bandage Jaemin and hold Jeno when he's upset and watch Haechan grow into someone his burrow never wanted. But he knows. Jaemin will get bored and Haechan will grow up and even Jeno will one day move on to better things, but it’s okay; Renjun’s also knows forever isn’t a part of this.

"I know you don't want to rely on them, but. You can. None of them have any plans to ever leave."

"Not having plans to leave doesn't mean they won't. Our entire burrow disappeared. What's to stop them?"

"I guess that's something you'll have to risk." 

Yang Yang doesn't touch him when he leaves, but Renjun watches for a long time as he walks away.

*

Renjun’s probably been thinking about it for a while when he finally brings it up at dinner. 

“Haechan, why don’t you use the barn?”

“For what?”

“Flying. The goats won’t mind. If they don’t balk at Jaemin disappearing and reappearing and Jeno breaking the walls, it should be fine. Besides, the ceiling isn’t that high, so if you lose control or fall, you won’t get too hurt.” 

“Are you sure?” Because Haechan has noticed that besides Renjun, they don’t really show off their powers very often. Renjun pops around silently, but unless Jaemin’s stuck, he’s never actually seen him disappear. And for all they talk about Jeno crushing things in his hands, he’s heartbreakingly gentle with almost everything he touches. 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Renjun asks in his tone that Haechan already knows means not to question him. “You should know how to use your power to the fullest extent. Otherwise, it's going to let you down. Do you always want to be falling out of the sky?”

At least that’s familiar. At the burrow, Haechan has been to lessons his entire life on how to use his powers, even before they’d manifested. He’d learned to concentrate, to block everything else out until he could just feel that tiny tendril of light. Even before it had manifested, he could find it, a curl of warmth somewhere inside. 

“Besides, none of us have seen you fly yet.”

“Jaemin’s seen me fly.”

“Uh, no. I haven’t seen you fly. I’ve seen you fall.” 

“Oh.”

So that's how he ends up trying his best to not crash and bounce around in front of them all.

It's easier with them there, Renjun and Jeno giving him guidance that's similar to what he's always been told, but different as well, burrows reaching down for different things in their cores.

Jaemin's no help at all, because everything he's learned has been through trial and error, figuring out hundreds of years of supernatural tricks that Renjun and Jeno had spent their lives learning. He's encouraging though, thoughtful, the first to reach out when Haechan's struggling.

It takes weeks and weeks, too many hours of body slamming into the dusty floor, but by the time the season changes to winter, he thinks he's got a handle on this.

*

Renjun gets the call just before dusk.

His burrow had disintegrated, melted into wisps and fragments, but like Yang Yang, some are still out there. He wouldn’t let them come back, not after all the years they’ve been gone, but he has a network with some of them, can talk to them now without wanting to kill them. Sometimes.

“Flames,” Chenle says when he answers the phone.

“What?”

“The whole place up in flames.”

“Oh. When?” Because Chenle has never been wrong and he needs to get things together if he’s going to be fighting a fire.

“Soon.” He clears his throat. “Are you building a new burrow?”

“No.”

“I believed you when it was just the weirdo Changer, companionship. But five? That’s a very small burrow.”

“Five?”

“Yeah. In my View, there’s five of you fighting the flames. The new guys are cute.”

Ugh, more unexpected company. He sighs. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“Do you want any help?” Chenle asks, but he doesn’t sound like he’s particularly ready to be Moved in and help with the heavy lifting.

“Nah, wouldn’t want to mess with your View.” Besides, Viewers are just as much trouble as Minders, ugh.

*

Renjun sits everyone down that night and the first thing that occurs to Haechan is: “My old burrow.”

Renjun blinks. “I hadn’t even thought of that,” and Haechan feels a petty rush of pride at already being helpful to his new burrow leader.

“It’d be just like them to burn the place.”

“Okay, well, we’re going to need a plan to minimize the damage,” Renjun says.

“Can’t we just stop it? I can leave if it’ll save the farm.”

“Chenle’s View is going to come true whether you’re here or not. Might as well be here to tell them you’re not going back and that Mark didn’t kidnap you.”

“They’re not going to care that Mark didn’t kidnap me. They had plans for me. They had plans for Mark. We knew they were eventually going to catch up to us.” Haechan’s not panicking, not yet, because these guys he’s found himself with are problem solvers. He’s only been around a few months, but he just knows, Renjun always has a plan. He keeps the others calm, directs them well, is everything a burrow leader should be. “We were just hoping we’d be further away before they noticed we were gone.”

“Maybe we should hide you.”

“Where, Jaemin? The root cellar?”

“I don't know, do you think they’d check there?

“They’ll check everywhere. Burrows who go after people who leave are blood thirsty.”

“Is that why you’ve never let anyone stay before?”

Renjun’s quiet a moment. “In part.” Because he likes to keep his reasons to himself. “Look, Chenle just said it was going to happen soon. He didn’t say tonight. We have a few days before it’ll happen. Time to plan.”

*

“Do you think that’s the real reason Mark left him behind? Give Haechan up to the burrow and give himself more time to get away?” Jeno asks after Haechan’s gone to bed. The three of them are still in the kitchen, huddled around cups of hot chocolate, trying to make a plan so the life they’ve built up isn’t ruined. They haven't done this in a while, stay up late and fret about Haechan, but what else are they supposed to do?

“Where do you come up with this stuff, Jeno? They were best friends. Maybe he really thought they’d never find Haechan here.”

One of the things Renjun sometimes can’t stand about Jaemin is how optimistic he is, trying to see the good in everyone. There’s a time and a place for it, but when their home’s about to go up in smoke isn’t it. “I think he knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe that was his plan all along, find someone to drop Haechan off with and continue on his way.”

“Do you really think so?”

Jaemin wasn’t raised in a burrow, so he doesn’t know how people in burrows try to drown each other, destroy each other, like there’s only enough room in the world for one extraordinary person. Of course, he’s tried to tell Jaemin, tried to warn him, scare him a little bit where he won’t try to set off on his own again, get caught out by the wrong person. “I keep telling you, Nana. The world is awful.”

“Not everyone is awful.”

Renjun sighs.

*

They stay at high alert over the next few days, jumping at the sounds each other makes. Jaemin wonders if this is what it used to be like for people with powers, back before burrows even, when people used to go on witch hunts.

It leaves a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he finds himself wishing that they would just hurry up and make their move so it'll just be over.

When the burrow finally does shows up, it isn’t like any of them expected, because it’s Mark knocking politely on the front door. He looks scared, that’s Jaemin’s only thought before their eyes accidentally meet. And it’s interesting, because Jaemin can tell he’s being Convinced, that Mark’s about to put thoughts in his head, but it doesn’t feel too much different than normal; he can see how people miss this entirely.

 _You don’t trust me, but you’ll play along,_ is all Mark Convinces him of before he breaks the connection and Jaemin slowly trickles back into his own mind. It’d be easy to miss that, too, if he hadn’t been expecting it.

“Sorry I was gone so long!” Mark chirps, his eyes still terrified. “Forgot my key again!”

And Jaemin smiles big, even though he doesn’t want to. “Maybe we should just weld the key to your hand.”

Mark forces a laugh and then pushes past Jaemin into the house. As soon as the door shuts, he drops the smile. “We have less than ten minutes to get Haechan out before our old burrow sets the whole place on fire.”

And oh, the burrow finding the farm makes so much more sense now. “Renjun!”

*

“They caught me fifty miles from here. I’ve been playing dumb, but one of their Minders finally got it out of me,” Mark says. Renjun’s forced him to talk in quick whispers so if the burrow’s somehow eavesdropping, they won’t hear much. “I didn’t even know they had other Minders.”

Haechan’s being more quiet than Renjun’s ever seen him, his eyes big and focused solely on Mark, drinking him in, like he’d expected to never see him again.

“I don’t want them to have Haechan,” Mark says. He’s keeping his eyes carefully on the ground like Renjun’s instructed. “I’ll go back if that’s what they want, but please help me hide him.”

“The root cellar?” Jeno says, and Renjun forces a small smile, because this wasn’t in any of their plans, Mark being there, but well, Chenle had said there were five of them.

“Guys, I have an idea,” Jaemin suddenly says. “It might not work, I’ve never tried it on purpose before, but maybe.”

“What, Jaemin?” Renjun asks, because Jaemin’s ideas rarely work as Jaemin thinks they’re going to and they’re pressed for time and might as well get Jaemin’s bad idea out of the way first.

In response to that, Jaemin reaches out and grabs Haechan and puts his concentrating face on. And then, slowly, they both blink out of sight.

Renjun lets out a long breath. “Okay. But can you turn him back? You’ve lost fifty pairs of shoes just like this.”

“We’ll worry about that later. For now, no one can find Haechan if he’s quiet.”

Mark lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“But now you have to help us save the farm.”

“Anything,” Mark promises.

When the burrow comes crashing in seven minutes later, they’ve already made a plan.

*

“You know,” Jaemin says conversationally, some time later. “When you said ten minutes until they set the place on fire, for some reason, I thought they’d try to come negotiate first.” He has the kitchen faucet sprayer pointed towards the back door where a man completely done up in flames is trying to get in.

“I convinced them that you guys were a big burrow,” Mark says. “Hoped it would stop them from even trying.”

“ _Convinced_ them, or convinced them?”

“A bit of both?”

“You’re not sure?”

“Eh,” Mark shrugs, before hitting the man in the face with a frying pan and knocking him out cold, the flames dying quickly. “Hard to tell. Sorry, Taeil.”

It’s strange to think of Mark knowing these people that are ripping apart the farmhouse. It’s strange to think that they lived together, worked together, and now they’re doing everything they can to destroy Mark, maybe Haechan if they can ever find him.

Jaemin lost track of him a while ago, but that doesn’t mean much. He could be hovering somewhere in the kitchen for all Jaemin knows. That’s the only perk of being invisible. No matter what happens, Jaemin hopes Haechan keeps his mouth shut and stays quiet wherever he’s hidden himself.

Renjun Moves into the kitchen and then pops out as soon as he sees that Mark and Jaemin have it under control. He’s been hopping around the house, covering all the different openings, which probably is feeding into the idea that the farm is teeming with burrow members.

He hears Jeno whoop loudly from the front room and then a great crash, followed by Jeno cackling, so he assumes things are going fine for him. But, really, Jaemin has no idea how they’re going to pull this off, because, um, five teenaged boys against a burrow full of adults that are comfortable in their powers? Yeah, Jaemin doesn’t think it’s going to end well.

But well, there’s no one else he’d rather lose with.

*

“They’re in the house,” Renjun whispers. “They finally got through the back door. I think Mark’s with them now.”

Jeno punches a fist into his other hand. “It’s going down.”

“I’m yelling timber,” Jaemin whispers back, and Renjun smacks him in the back of the head before Moving out of the room.

Jeno’s snickering, though. “Jaemin, just keep quiet and let me handle it when they get here.” Which is probably for the best, if Jaemin can keep his mouth shut.

“Aye, aye, captain of the good ship Lollipop.”

“We’re doomed. You can’t even stay quiet when it’s just us.”

“Where’s the incentive in that? You can’t hold a conversation with yourself.”

Jeno groans.

*

“Where’s the boy?” the burrow leader says when she comes in the room.

Jaemin glances around wildly because this is a bit more than he was prepared for, but the burrow leader can’t even see him, is shooting the question at Jeno.

“Huh,” Jeno says, and he doesn’t even look nervous about being surrounded by the enemy. He shrugs, casually. “No idea. Our Changer Changed him.”

“Where’s the Changer at?” the burrow leader roars, and some of the other burrow members that have trailed in start scrambling around, like they’ll be able to actually undo something a Changer’s Changed.

Jeno just shrugs again. “Somewhere, I imagine.” He looks really bored, like he has no idea why they’re even bothering.

Jaemin’s starting to sweat a bit, because god, a lot of people have poured into the room, and someone’s bound to bump into him. Or he’s going to sneeze, or something, and god, their burrow must be huge if they sent out this many people to find two teenaged boys.

Finally, one of the scramblers come back. “We can only find one other person here, but he’s a Mover and we can’t catch him.”

The burrow leader swings back around to Jeno. “So where’s the Changer?”

“He Changed, too.” It’s then that Jaemin remembers that Jeno has experience with burrows, left one after laying low for as long as possible. Jeno doesn’t seem like the type to manipulate anyone, ever, and it’s interesting to watch how he’s getting underneath the burrow leader’s skin.

The burrow leader takes a visual deep breath. “What kind of Changer do you have?”

Jeno yawns a bit. “We tend to keep to ourselves. I know we have a Mover, but really, what can he Move? What can our Changer Change? What have I been lying about really doing? We keep our secrets from each other just as well as any other burrow would.”

The burrow leader’s eyes narrow. “What you really do?” she repeats, her tone deceptively mild. “What is it that you do that you don’t want your burrow to know about?”

Jeno just looks at her sadly. “I destroy everything I touch.”

Her eyes narrow even further until they’re just slits in her face. “Impressive,” she says. “You know, if you help me, there’s room in my burrow for someone promising. Just think, a real burrow. Real people around to help you grow. People who will understand you. Not a Mover and a Changer you know nothing about who are harboring one of our stolen children. They’re going to die here today for taking him, but you don’t have to.”

“Interesting,” Jeno says. “That’s exactly what my burrow said when they came for me.” He loses the sad look for a moment, his eyes crunched into happy half moons. “But I meant it when I said it. I destroy everything I touch.” Before she can react, he reaches out for her.

And then the burrow leader blinks out of sight.

*

Mark makes eye contact with the only person that had been in a position to see Renjun the only moment he’d been in the room, and thinks hard, because this is probably more important than anything else he’s ever Convinced someone of. Even though he hadn’t seen even a flash of Renjun and he’d been looking straight at the burrow leader.

The room hadn’t been loud before, just the sound of the burrow leader’s voice, but it’s silent now. The burrow members blink at one another, because that probably wasn’t in their plans, even their plans for battling a large, established burrow. They all look a little lost.

“What did you do to her?” someone finally shrieks, and that’s when the noise crashes in, gasps and whispers of conversation, hums of powers dancing in people’s veins.

“Silence!” Jeno screams, and stands up. He looks just a touch uncomfortable with everyone’s eyes on him, but really, Mark’s impressed with how Jeno’s commanding the room. “If I were you, I would go ahead and leave while I could.”

“Or what?” someone asks.

Jeno smiles, it’s full of sharp teeth, and this time he doesn’t even reach out, the man just disappears. Mark kind of wonders where Renjun’s dropping them off at as he preemptively Convinces another person. “Your numbers have been dropping since you got here. Or haven’t you noticed?”

The burrow members heads dart around, like they’re giving a head count, and someone else disappears; Mark doesn’t even read a flicker of realization on anyone’s face, and really, did Jaemin turn Renjun invisible when Mark was distracted trying to infiltrate his old burrow?

“Did you really think just a Mover and a Changer were holding you back for so long?

The group of men around Mark start exchanging wary glances, like, maybe bursting in to find a handful of teenaged boys was just a decoy to a serious burrow, or maybe like they think that Jeno really does have some kind of intense destroying powers. They edge towards the door; Mark lets them slide out one by one.

“You won’t get away with this. We’ll come back,” one of them says.

“You can’t come back if you’re dead,” Jeno promises, and the room bursts into flames none of the Flamers can control.

Jeno doesn’t look nervous, even though that isn’t part of any plan that’s been laid out, but he cackles wildly, smoke swirling around him theatrically, Haechan and Jaemin’s outlines menacingly hovering behind him.

Then, one by one, the bodies of the missing burrow members start popping in at Jeno’s feet.

All in all, that clears the burrow out pretty fast.

*

They sit on what’s left of the burnt porch later that evening, mostly propped up against each other with Mark on the step above, more weary than any of them have ever been before; none of them have ever exhausted their powers like this.

“This sucks,” Mark says.

“Sorry,” Haechan says, and he sounds sheepish. “I thought it would be good for effect. I didn’t mean to burn whatever was left of the farmhouse.”

“You’ve never even mentioned you thought you might be a Flamer, too,” Renjun says quietly.

“I knew Mark wouldn’t take me with him when he left if he knew.”

Which makes a lot more sense to Renjun now, the lengths their burrow were going to in order to get Haechan back. Fully developed double powers? Rarely heard of. “Why didn’t you say anything to us after he’d left?”

Renjun can feel Haechan shrug. “Keeping something for myself, I guess.”

“Speaking of keeping things to ourselves,” Jeno speaks up. “Might have been a good idea to share the fact that you were going to pile unconscious people up around me. Did you hit them in the head with a hammer? I thought the plan was you were going to just leave them back at their burrow.”

“Yeah, but then I got a call from Lucas right before hand and he offered to knock anyone out for me if I brought them to him. Figured it’d help establish you’re a crazy fucker with tons of power.”

“Hopefully that means they won’t come back. They didn’t even try to take any bodies.”

“What are we going to do when they wake up?”

“I can drop them off anywhere. He said it’d take a day or two for them to wake up.”

“What are we going to do when they come back?”

Renjun’s quiet at that. He doesn’t really know what they can do when the burrow comes back. They’ll be prepared the next time, will know some of Renjun’s secrets, know that Jeno can’t be some magical fount of destruction. They’ll know it’s just a handful of teenaged boys playing at games that no one taught them the rules of.

And the farmhouse is ruined, parts of the house still smoldering in the dark. Generations of his old burrow had made their lives here and it’s all gone, burned away. When Haechan’s burrow comes back, they won’t even have something to protect, just a pile of ashes and some hopes.

Jaemin’s the one that speaks. He hasn’t said anything at all since they’d finished chasing the burrow away and had collapsed down next to Jeno on the porch, visible again and wearing Mark’s jacket and some mucking trousers left in one of the still-standing barns. “We won’t be here when they come back.”

“Are we going to hide in the root cellar?” Jeno asks, and Renjun gives a small chuckle that borders on hysteria.

“No,” Jaemin says, finally reaching out and dropping an arm around Mark and dragging him down into the pile. “I just think it’s time my parents meet my new family. We can figure out the rest of our lives after that.”

*

(Haechan spends the next three weeks invisible before it slowly fades away. First his left foot becomes visible, then two of the fingers on his left hand.

“I thought you’d been kidding about an invisible boy with you. Some kind of prank you kids were pulling,” his mom tells him after that first breakfast with Haechan’s face visible. “What happened to him?”

Jaemin thinks about to when he met Haechan, all those months ago and shrugs. “Some kind of curse, I guess.”)


End file.
